After Immigration and Customs Enforcement recently released 2,228 immigrant detainees — 761 from Texas — many Lone Star State lawmakers had questions.

On Tuesday afternoon, they got to ask those questions to ICE’s director, in several testy exchanges, with Republican members of the committee accusing the organization of releasing detainees to make a political point about sequestration.

ICE director John Morton defended his organization passionately, blaming the detainee release on a lack of resources.

“The agency is asked to do far more than Congress appropriates or could rationally appropriate to the agency,” Morton told the committee. “We are in a situation where there are 11 million people, on average, here unlawfully, and the agency has resources to remove about 400,000 a year, which is less than 4 percent.”

After sequester went into effect, the organization released 2,228 detainees as a measure to stay within budget. ICE said the immigrants will remain supervised and subject to deportation. Causing alarm for lawmakers was the fact that 10 of the detainees had committed aggravated felonies, and 159 had committed multiple misdemeanors. The majority had no criminal history. Ironically, though Texas saw the most detainees released, none of them were the convicted felons.

Republicans on the committee argued that ICE had plenty of time to prepare for sequestration, and could have spaced out its downsizing in the number of detainees in custody. They also said it was troubling that ICE would make an announcement about detainee release, when detainees are already released on a regular basis.

Rep. Ted Poe, R-Humble, shared this concern.

“You see that the way this was handled could scare the American public?” Poe asked Morton. “Have you got that message yet? Do you think that occurred? I’ll tell you it occurred in my district.”

“The Obama administration would have the American people believe budget cuts forced the released of these immigrants awaiting deportation,” Smith said in a statement after the hearing. “But options exist for the agency to maintain detention space and keep immigrants from being released into our communities.”

Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Tyler, was concerned that ICE was not giving proper notification to the right authorities about those released with criminal records. Gohmert got passionate when talking about how many of the deported simply returned to the US, a pattern he said he saw as a judge.

“The best thing this administration can do for this country is secure the border,” Gohmert said. “So they don’t have to keep re-catching people who have already been deported.”

Morton pushed back on some of the Republican attacks, noting that ICE deports an average of 400,000 immigrants in the past four years, a record high. Morton said those recently released were considered the least likely to pose a danger to their communities.

Morton gained some allies in his defense among some Democrats on the committee, including Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee. The Houston Democrat agreed with some of Morton’s reasoning, but did say she thinks the organization could better prioritize those it detains. Jackson Lee said it makes little sense for an organization with limited space to detainee immigrants who are victims of domestic abuse or the sole income earner in their household. Jackson Lee said ultimately the budgetary concerns were the main problem.

“What did you want him to do?” Jackson Lee said after the hearing. “They had to cut $110 million.”